Kevin Feige Confirms The Future Of The MCU Rests On This New Character's Shoulders
San Diego Comic-Con is always a treat for Marvel fans, with Kevin Feige unveiling what's ahead for the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the producer's 2022 Hall H presentation was no different. Not only did we get new trailers for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," and "I am Groot," but Feige also revealed that Phases 4–6 are titled "the Multiverse Saga." This isn't too surprising since a few of the recent projects have introduced alternate universes with different versions of Marvel characters, like the returning Spider-Men in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and the surprising members of the Illuminati in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
However, there has been some confusion about exactly where the MCU takes place in conjunction with the wider Multiverse because while the "Doctor Strange" sequel designates it as Earth-616, the comics establish the MCU as Earth-199999 (via Marvel Database). It's something "Ms. Marvel" star Iman Vellani keeps butting heads with Feige over, telling Deadline, "I don't believe that the MCU is 616. As much as Kevin Feige can make us think that it's 616, it is 199999." So many Earths.
But when Feige took to the stage in Hall H, he revealed two massive movies in Phase Six: "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and "Avengers: Secret Wars," so there's a good chance we'll see even more universes on the big screen in the next few years. It's possible one of them will even clear up this whole 616 vs. 199999 debate, especially since the 2015 "Secret Wars" comics combined universes into one singular continuity (via Marvel Database). Thankfully, we know who Earth's Mightiest Heroes will be up against in the Multiverse Saga because Feige confirmed that the future of the MCU rests on the shoulders of a dangerous new character.
Kang the Conqueror is the driving force of the Multiverse Saga
In the Season 1 finale of "Loki," it's revealed that the 616 timeline has been crafted by He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) as a way of protecting the universe from other nefarious versions of himself from across the Multiverse. Majors' gleeful villain is a variant of Kang the Conqueror, an iconic time-traveling villain from the comics who tries to rule all of time itself. So it was only a matter of time before the star returned to play Kang properly, and Kevin Feige recently told ComicBook.com that the Multiverse Saga all comes down to Majors' villain.
"There's nobody's shoulders I'd rather be putting the multiverse saga on than his," he said. "It's really impressive what Jonathan Majors is able to do and all the different incarnations, variants, if you will, of Kang that we will see him do. It's really pretty cool." So Majors will be able to explore numerous versions of Kang in the coming years.
The Marvel head also noted that he's going to be a much different threat than Thanos (Josh Brolin), but that's what makes him special. "Kang is a very different type of villain and the fact that he is many, many different characters is what's most exciting and most differentiates him." Majors will next appear in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantuamania," so hopefully, we'll start to get an idea of what the time-traveling villain wants from the MCU when the Paul Rudd-led sequel arrives in theaters on February 17, 2023.